Visiting Las Vegas NM

 

Hotel Castaneda - a mission style Harvey House built in 1898

We travelled portions of the Santa Fe Trail.  Along the route we stopped at Las Vegas NM. It is the county seat of San Miguel County, New Mexico. Las Vegas was established in 1835 and prospered as a stop on the Santa Fe Trail. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad arrived at Las Vegas from the North on July 4, 1879. During the railroad era Las Vegas boomed, quickly becoming one of the largest cities in the American Southwest. Turn-of-the-century Las Vegas featured all the modern amenities, including an electric street railway, the "Duncan Opera House" at the northeast corner of 6th Street and Douglas Avenue, a Carnegie library, the Castañeda Hotel (a major Harvey House)...... [per Wikipedia]. 

Click for:  Harvey Houses in the old west

Hotel Castaneda

G at Hotel Castaneda

The train rolls right past the hotel and the station is next door.  This is an Amtrak station on the Southwest Chief route. 

Amtrak Station as viewed from the Castaneda Hotel

Las Vegas has numerous historic structures (mostly railroad-era houses and commercial buildings), with over 900 listed on the National Register of Historic Places. 

We were unable to visit The City of Las Vegas Museum & Rough Rider Memorial on Grand Avenue. It was dedicated in 1940, is free and open to the public. It houses a memorial collection of artifacts, archives and photographs from the Rough Riders and mementos about the 1898 Cuban Campaign of the Spanish–American War, with information on over 200 members of the original regiment, RRR Association documents, etc. "The museum illuminates the history of Las Vegas, its connection to the Rough Riders, the Santa Fe Trail and the development of New Mexico. It features collections of local Native American pottery, household items, costumes, ranching and farming equipment, agricultural and mercantile operations, and home life." [Wikipedia]. 

Click for:  Rough-rider-museum

The museum also has a YouTube Channel:    Rough Rider Museum YouTube Channel

At the corner of Grand and Douglas

The El Fidel Hotel

Continuing on to Colorado.............

(c) N. Retzke 2022